spiral cat or reg cat? fellow nodule watchers

[laurene]

Hi all,

I just read a article by a doctor in a magazine that said spiral cat scan is the only cat scan that can detect early stage lc,now I never had a spiral scan just a regular cat but now I may be thinking of asking for a spiral I tried to post on ask the experts but its locked I wanted to ask them if they feel spiral cat is superior to regular cat in early detection any info on this is appreciated as this doc also staed that found early there is a 92 percent survival rate at ten year mark any info on the difference of the two would be appreciated thanks and god bless you all

[nikkala]

As a fellow nodule watcher I wish I had an answer for you. I would think they would both be ok as long as there is continuosly no change. maybe you should call the pulmo doc and ask. I have my next one coming up and always dread the waiting. Best of luck to you.

[Nick C]

I have been to the I-ELCAP conference...which endorses and wants to make the low dose spiral CT the gold standard...I believe that...based on everything I've read, is a good one.

Check www.ielcap.org.

[Fred]

Hi Laurene,

I am a fellow nodule watcher. Have been for 1 1/2 years and happy to report that my nodules have remained stable. They are very small, 2mm and 3mm which the Spiral CT was able to detect. My doctor ordered a Spiral CT scan right from the start. Following is some information I found on Spiral CT scans versus regular CT scans.

"A relatively new technique, spiral (helical) CT has improved the accuracy of CT for many diseases. A new vascular imaging technique—spiral CT angiography—is noninvasive and less expensive than conventional angiography, and allows doctors to see blood vessels without the need for more invasive procedures.

The term "spiral CT" comes from the shape of the path taken by the x-ray beam during scanning. The examination table advances at a constant rate through the scanner gantry while the x-ray tube rotates continuously around the patient, tracing a spiral path through the patient. This spiral path gathers continuous data with no gaps between images.

With spiral CT, refinements in detector technology support faster, higher-quality image acquisition with less radiation exposure. It is typically eight to 10 times faster than conventional CT. Such speed is beneficial in all patients but especially in elderly, pediatric, or critically ill patients, populations in which the length of scanning was often problematic. A spiral scan can usually be obtained during a single breath hold.

With conventional CT, small lesions may frequently go undetected when a patient breathes differently on consecutive scans, as a lesion may be missed by unequal spacing between scans. The speed of spiral scanning and single breath hold increases the rate of lesion detection."

Check this website: http://www.bodyscan.md/spiralct_scanning.html

I hope this helps.

Fred

[john]

I *think* another advantage is that a spiral has a lower dose of radiation.

For a young person that is important because radiation can also cause cancer. It would take a lot of scans, but the younger a person is

the more risk over time

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/conte ... tearea=PED